Mediaset admits foreign interest

Mediaset in Italy has revealed it has received expressions of interest from foreign firms looking to go into partnership with the pay TV broadcaster.

The company, which is controlled by former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, said it had attracted interest from “various international operators for a possible partnership.”

No details were given about the companies involved.

The statement, issued over the weekend, followed reports last week that Qatari network Al Jazeera and Vivendi-owned French broadcaster Canal+ had agreed to take a stake in the firm’s pay TV arm, Premium. The Italian broadcaster subsequently denied that any such deal had been sealed.

Mediaset has suffered from a downturn in advertising spend over recent years and raised €283m (US$392m) earlier this month by selling a stake in its broadcasting infrastructure firm El Towers.

The broadcaster said it would use the money to accelerate the development process of Mediaset’s core business “with a specific focus on contents, both in Italy and abroad, and will allow us to increase the financial resources available to pursue industrial opportunities.”

The Milan-based firm is also considering whether to merge its operations in Italy with its interests in Spain, which include a 22% stake in Spanish broadcaster Digital+.